A Week Without Rob: Fabricating Work and Getting Supplies

This week I got all of my supplies ordered and started work on fabricating the shell of the project. The amazon arduino that can play sound arrived and I am still waiting for the load cell and load cell amplifier. 

I looked at the videos, but I haven't been putting in the time to learn every part of touch designer. I am not going to use it and I don't want to spend the many hours it would take to learn it if it won't serve my practice. I think it's helpful to get a general idea for how it works, but I'm not going to gain any sort of proficiency. My interest in electronic components remains with the basics of audio playing. I am not interested in distorting my audio or anything like that.  

I spent time in the studio working on fabricating the physical core of my artwork. Instead of buying a bassenett and spending more money, I'm making my own out of a pillow and a laundry basket. In the final rendering it will be covered so that it isn't obviously a laundry basket. 

These images show the welded form of the crane bassinet. It rocks (like a rocking chair)  and I will be making a smaller mobile and hanging it from the head feather. I am hoping that the laundry basket and pillow base will give plenty of space to hide my load cell and the other electronic components. 

I think that the coding of the electronic component should be pretty simple. I am planning on setting a variable for the data that I gather from the load cell, and having the volume change based upon that weight. 

I am still sorting out how it will be interacted with in a gallery setting. I am really interested in creating something that is meant to be used within the home. There's something that interests me about it sitting silent until there's actually a child that needs it. However, for the sake of this project I will likely make 'babies" of some sort and give them differing weights so that the audience has the opportunity to interact with them. I would eventually like to build this out into a full nursery room instillation. I would be interested on your feedback on this.